Source of article 2's Company - Magnus Insights.

Those of us who work as trial/jury consultants usually thrive on the excitement of the research day, the day when we conduct our focus groups, mock trials, jury simulations, or employ other methods of data collection. These days, thanks to books, movies, and a certain popular television show, many people are aware of some of the things trial/jury consultants do to obtain information for our clients. However, in my work as a social psychologist who conducts litigation research, the research day represents a fraction of the work my staff and I perform on behalf of our clients. I recently considered this in terms of percentages. There are 3 time periods involved in the life cycle of Magnus’ work for our clients: (1) the pre-research day period, comprising approximately 20% of our time and resources; (2) the research day, which comprises approximately 30% of our time and resources; and (3) the post-research day period, which represents the balance of our work, approximately 50%. Most of Magnus’ clients never fully appreciate the time and effort spent by the Magnus staff at times other than the 1 day when we are all together during the mock trial, focus group, etc. We do not expect our clients to understand/appreciate all of our work behind the scenes. In fact, we prefer they not consider what we are doing on their behalf. If we do our jobs properly (and we always do!), our efforts should appear seamless and flawless, leaving the attorneys to be free to do other things on behalf of our mutual clients. This being said, we could never get to the research day without hours, days, and weeks (sometimes, months) of preparation. There are research facilities to be reserved, travel arrangements to be made for all staff members, research participants to be recruited, legal documents pertaining to the case to be read, survey instruments to be drafted, and much more. And, while the research day is long, arduous, and stressful, our work is far from over upon our return to the office. Post-research days, as I explain to all new hires, are not vacation time or rest time. Once our data are collected during the research day, they have to be analyzed (both qualitatively and quantitatively); videos of the research proceedings have to be edited, produced, and sent to our clients; and I have to spend days and days synthesizing complex information, then writing a comprehensive report for our clients. Editing the report, in and of itself, is a task that is not for the faint of heart. Multiple drafts are prepared, lots of red ink is used in the editing process, and tensions are at an all time high as we strive to meet the deadline for sending the report to our client. After the written report is sent, our work on the case is still unfinished, until the report has been reviewed with all the clients involved in the case. And, we are usually working for more than one client at a time, which means we are in the midst of pre-research day activities for some clients at the same time we are in the process of preparing other clients’ reports. But, this is all in a day’s work and it is what we do, and do well!